an opponent to hagel. thanks for joining us today. >> glad to be with you, thank you. >> now that he's sworn in, what would you like to see as you monitor how he does at the pentagon? >> you know, let me say this, andrea, i view this as yesterday's story. we made a good case that this was a flawed candidate. he's my secretary and yours. i wish him well. as a matter of fact, the first thing i want to do under sequestration is give the secretary of defense and the president of the united states the flexibility under the overall cap to move money around and make the sequestration cuts as painless and less disruptive as possible. >> well, do you think that the confirmation battle weakened him and do you have any regrets about the way that confirmation battle was undertaken by his critics? >> i think we made an honorable case. i still believe his pronouncements and positions over time put him way outside the bipartisan foreign policy mainstream but the president was able to hold his democratic votes, even among